REPLY TO A PERSONAL

REPLY TO A PERSONAL

Dear Beautiful Soul,

I do solemnly swear

what you read is what you get.

Spineless as a jellyfish,

I take more shapes than water,

writhe like a python, have

more selves than the Trinity.

With nothing to hold onto

I clench my fists. Almost

down and out, I can't go back

or ahead. Struggling to stand

on my own two feet,

I constantly waver.

Because I refuse to pick up

the pieces of the past,

I can't map out a future.

With no promises to keep,

I don't know what I'm waiting for.

Too stiff-necked to hang my head,

I'm ashamed to hold it up.

When I plop it on a pillow,

I wrestle against myself,

dark angel I can't pin down.

The nightmare I wake up to

is crazier than my dreams.

As for love, it's a wag without a tale.

In an instant of letting go,

Dad and Mom misconceived.

Since they've tucked in their toes,

I've been trying to forgive them.

Dad bequeathed no mansions,

Mom can't intercede from the grave.

My days are strings of words

ending in Gordian knots.

Crooked my lines, my pages

ungathered, and the book

of me is unbound. Want me?